- What Is a Dental Bridge?
- The Dental Implant Supported Bridge
Just as a bridge over a body of water bridges the gap between two pieces of land, dental bridges bridge the gap between teeth when a tooth is missing. There are two types of bridges to choose from: A conventional dental bridge and a dental bridge supported by dental implants. In this post we will discuss the conventional bridge.
As is depicted in the picture, a conventional bridge is made up of two crowns and a synthetic tooth. The crowns go over the existing tooth in the mouth and the synthetic tooth sits in the open space where the missing tooth is. The synthetic teeth can be made of porcelain, alloys, gold or a combination of the those materials.
Although this type of procedure is very effective in replacing missing teeth, the truth of the matter is that the conventional bridge often fails, because the supporting teeth can no longer support the bridge or the cement holding the bridge leaks, causing decay and more tooth loss. When this happens, patients may need to replace the three-tooth bridge with a four-tooth bridge, which will cause additional problems in the future.
In our next post we’ll discuss the benefits of dental implant supported bridges. If a mouth has enough bone mass to support a dental implant, then this is the ideal procedure. With dental implants, the surrounding teeth are not in danger, and you will not experience the additional tooth loss caused by the strain of conventional dental bridges.
Stay tuned for the next post on dental implant supported bridges. Feel free to post any questions you might have in the meantime.
